Ahead of the Mobile-First Index Launch, Google Has Some Advice

We all have the idea that Google is going to launch its mobile-first index anytime soon, probably in the next few months or so. To prepare, Google seems to encourage webmasters to go responsive with their websites.

Recently, Google has published a ‘how-to’ guide on moving m-dot site to responsive. The techniques are pretty common, but it’s an exceptional reminder that while Google reinforces many mobile implementations, they do recommend responsive. In fact, the tech giant has recommended that in case you are turning to responsive, do it before the mobile first rollout.

Following are the steps Google offered to move from m-dot to responsive:

Get your responsive site ready

Don’t forget to configure 301 redirects on the previous mobile URLs to point to the responsive These redirects are required to be done on a per-URL basis, individually from each mobile URL to the responsive URL.

You need to remove any configuration specific to mobile-URL, such as conditional redirects or a Vary HTTP header.

Set up rel=canonical on the responsive URLs pointing to themselves (self-referential canonicals).